Local business unite against piracy

Speaking on a panel at the Madrid de Cine Spanish Film Screenings Monday, Alta Films’ producer-distributor Enrique Gonzalez Macho opened hostilities, declaring, “Spain’s big telcos encourage illicit downloading, even publicizing offers. The Spanish state is responsible for this lack of control.”

Gonzalez Macho estimated that, in its first week after theatrical release, more people saw “The Education of Fairies” in Spain by illegal download — 340,000 — than at theaters during the whole of its run.

Julio Fernandez, CEO of Filmax Ent., added he’d had to lay off more than 100 of Filmax’s 418 staff, precisely because of piracy.

Shocking the audience, Halli Kristinsson, the Brussels-based MPA VP and regional director of anti-piracy ops, said that over 20% of illegal downloading worldwide on “Meet the Robinsons” had been practiced in Spain.

Provisional date from Gfk, a Euro research company, guestimated online movie downloads in Spain last year at 240 million. Street sales of bootlegged DVDs ran at 25 million-35 million.

Among journos, early running favorites, some well into their sales cycles, included social-issue moorland manhunt thriller “King of the Hill” from Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego, chef contest docu “The Chicken, the Fish and the King Crab,” a gastronomic thriller from one of Spain’s premier docupic directors, Jose Luis Lopez Linares, and Nacho Vigalondo’s unusual rural timetravel brainteaser, “Timecrimes,” now set up for an English-language remake at United Artists.